Artists and Curators Call for Venice Biennale to Drop Israeli Pavilion

Artists, curators, writers, students, teachers, architects, and cultural workers from around the world are demanding that the organizers of the forthcoming Sixtieth Venice Biennale exclude Israel from the event. Citing the country’s relentless months-long pounding of Gaza in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel carried out by Palestinian political and military group Hamas, the newly formed Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) has published anopen letterdeclaring that “platforming art representing a state engaged in ongoing atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza is unacceptable” and calling for “No Genocide Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.”

“The world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, has affirmed that Israel is plausibly committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” wrote ANGA. The organization pointed out that South Africa beginning in 1968 was banned from participating in the Biennale over its policy of apartheid; the ban was lifted in 1993, when apartheid was abolished. ANGA additionally decried the “double standard” adhered to by the Biennale in publicly denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, noting that its organizers have remained “silent about Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians.”

The letter has thus far garnered more than 8,700 signatures, including those of Turner Prize winners; past and present Biennale participants; and noted writers, artists, and curators. Among the signatories are Yto Barrada, Hannah Black, Yve Laris Cohen, Jesse Darling, Nan Goldin, Nina Katchadourian, and Ahmet Öğüt. The missive arrives as Israel makes plans to invade the Palestinian city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, where some 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering, many having been forced from their homes farther north by Israeli shelling and ground assaults. About 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas attack of October 7 and some 250 taken hostage; the IDF on February 24 announced a ground-ops death toll of 238. The health ministry in Gaza on February 25 reported at least 29,692 Palestinians dead.

“While the Israeli pavilion presses ahead, the genocidal death toll in Gaza and the West Bank increases daily. While Israel’s curatorial team plans their ‘Fertility Pavilion’ reflecting on contemporary motherhood, Israel has murdered more than 12,000 children and destroyed access to reproductive care and medical facilities. As a result, Palestinian women have C-sections without anaesthetic and give birth in the street,” wrote ANGA. “Any official representation of Israel on the international cultural stage is an endorsement of its policies and of the genocide in Gaza.”